There’ s no longer any doubt — the wolves found in Norway and Sweden today are actually Finnish, according to extensive studies done on their genetic make-up. Humans wiped out Norway’s original wolf population in the wild around 1970.
There’ s no longer any doubt — the wolves found in Norway and Sweden today are actually Finnish, according to extensive studies done on their genetic make-up. Humans wiped out Norway’s original wolf population in the wild around 1970.
“The original Norwegian-Swedish wolves probably didn’t share their genetics with the wolves in Norway and Sweden today,” says Hans Stenøien, director of the NTNU University Museum.
Stenøien is the first author of a new report that addresses the genetic composition of the Norwegian-Swedish wolf population in much greater detail than has been done previously.
“We’ve carried out the largest genetic study of wolves in the world,” says Stenøien.
This is the final part of a large report on the wolf in Norway that the Storting (Parliament) commissioned in 2016. But by then the real Norwegian-Swedish wolves had been gone for many years.
Read more at: Norwegian University of Science and Technology
The Norwegian-Swedish wolf is probably gone forever. Today's population is descended from Finnish wolves that migrated in after we exterminated our own wolves about 50 years ago. (Photo Credit: Per Harald Olsen, NTNU)
